Canzano: The West feels far away (and left out) when it comes to college sports thinking
Geographic tilt is an issue.
An entire side of the eight-team College World Series bracket features Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. It’s an all-SEC party. Another Southeastern Conference member, Ole Miss, is still alive on the other side of the tournament bracket, too.
The presidents and athletic directors in that conference will slap backs and celebrate the quasi-SEC invitational going on in Omaha this week. Still, it raises questions about bias, the tilt of geography, TV viewership, fan interest, and the overall health of college athletics.
Is this out of hand?
The College Football Playoff hasn’t been geographically balanced, either. Outside of the Oregon Ducks, does anyone in the West consistently have a chance to matter on the national stage?
I’ll dive deeper into that in a bit, but first, some additional questions: Why has the region been marginalized? And how come college athletics leaders and TV networks aren’t more worried about wobbling geography?